There was a special presentation at Narberth RFC before the recent home match with Bargoed as Geraint Bowen presented the princely sum of £1,200 to the Pembrokeshire Friends of Prostate Cymru.
Bowen recently received his Welsh cap after playing at full back for Wales in Canada over 25 years ago and it is only now that the Welsh Rugby Union have rightly back-dated the awarding of caps – perhaps most satisfying of all those involved in his case because his career at the top was cut short when he sustained a broken leg playing for Llanelli at Twickenham.
It was typical of the Narberth legend that when the club contacted him about an official presentation of his cap at the Otters’ clubhouse he decided to mark the occasion with some fund-raising for a good local cause.
In a chance conversation with local sports writer Bill Carne he learned about the good work being undertaken by the Pembrokeshire Friends of Prostate Cymru and decided to help them, not least because Geraint and his wife Sian, who run the Bethesda Farm and Coffee Shop, Narberth, were also good friends of former Welsh coach, the late Ray Williams, who had founded the Pembrokeshire Friends of Prostate Cymru.
So it was that Geraint Bowen presented his magnificent cheque to Bill Carne, who was a founder member of the group, with secretary John Daniels and chairman Brian Harries also in attendance alongside Narberth RFC chairman John Owen and team manager Rob ‘Basher’ Lewis.
Bill Carne thanked Geraint Bowen for his efforts and reminded those present about the circumstances of the awarding of the cap and a little about the fund-raising that took place, whilst Brian Harries outlined the facts about the disease that affects so many men in Wales.
It nicely rounded off a smashing moment that shows the good work that sportsmen and women can do – and further recognised the special moment when Geraint Bowen received his cap prior to a 2015 Welsh Six Nations international at the Millennium Stadium.